Re: Science: Global Warming...

Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Mon, 08 Mar 1999 15:12:18 -0500

mark@unicorn.com wrote:

>>This corresponds to my experience. It seems to have been getting

> >hotter and hotter. Every year for the past few years has seemed to set
> >new records.
>
> However, that depends on what your definition of "seems" is. My experience
> has been the opposite; I haven't seen a summer worthy of the name since I
> came back to England two years ago, and nothing that even begins to compare
> to the super-hot summers of the seventies.
>
> I'd be interested to see an independent study of recent temperatures; all
> that I've seen implies that the pro-greenhouse folks declare each year to
> be warmer than ever before even when they're not. In fact they seem to
> declare any kind of weather as proof of global warming, whether it's hot,
> cold, perfectly clear or a major storm.

Yes, this winter in the northeast US was slightly colder and slightly wetter than the norm. We didn't have a total thaw in late January like we usually have, but we are getting more early and late snowfall as well. Its March and we are still getting temps below zero F at night, barely hitting the 20-30 deg F range during the day. Of course local conditions are not 'representative' of the system.

The stats I find interesting is that those that claim global warming say that it is triggering more very violent storms, hurricanes, etc., yet when you look at the hurricane data, something like 75% of the most dangerous, high power, and damagine hurricanse on record for the 20th century occured before the middle of the century. This is a significant and incontrovetible indication that the predictions of the global warming claimers are off by a wide margin.

To me, global warming is a non issue for extropians. By the time it is a problem to us, we will be able to fix it with a quick nano-tech recipe. I also see it as having good aspects:

  1. it will prod island nations to invest money in developing floating and submersed community construction techniques.
  2. island nations will lobby for the UN to recognise sea-mount based communities as sovereign nations
  3. poorer island nations which can't afford to build their own floating or submersed facilites will attract investment with incentives like the Seychelle's bank account/consul law. We could wind up with an extropian country just by being patient and biding our time.

Mike Lorrey